LAW SCHOOLS SHIFT FOCUS FOR GRADS

Many steered down new legal paths as bleak job market awaits students

Facing a grim job market for graduates and the prospect of a decades-long decline in applications, some law schools are steering students toward legal areas where careers are more promising.

Whether the strategy is merited and effective remains to be seen as the nation’s roughly 200 law schools, including three in San Diego County, mark another season of commencement ceremonies. Leaders at these institutions and outside legal experts are divided in their long-term outlook on the employment landscape for attorneys.

“I expect one or two, and maybe as many as 10, law schools to close over the next decade,” said Brian Leiter, a professor of jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School and director of its Center for Law, Philosophy and Human Values. He pointed to a national decline in applications that’s linked to the narrowing job market for lawyers — especially since the Great Recession.

At the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Dean Rudy Hasl is more optimistic.

“I’ve experienced at least three other periods in which there were the most dire predictions of future legal education, only to have the situation turn around within a couple of years with new opportunities, growth in law school applications and so forth,” said Hasl, the longest-serving law school dean in the nation.

He added that a report from the National Association for Law Placement found that the majority of practicing attorneys are baby boomers who will retire in five years.

Various factors at play

Like most professions, the legal field was affected by the recession. But technology and other factors also have contributed to the downsizing, said Brian Tamanaha, a professor at Washington University Law School in St. Louis, Mo., and author of “Failing Law Schools.”

“In 2008 there was a serious contraction in the legal market,” he said. “Thousands of attorneys were laid off. That was a huge shock through the system.”

Corporate law firms responded in ways that Tamanaha said made them more efficient — and reduced their work force. He said those firms shifted to electronic means of reviewing legal documents, replacing the role previously handled by lower-level attorneys. They also have outsourced some functions to foreign countries and contracted with outside lawyers, who charge lower rates, instead of keeping a larger in-house staff.

In addition, the recession led to stagnant demand for attorneys among employers such as municipalities and school districts. Consumers can increasingly visit websites or buy software programs that provide various legal services, and paralegals are taking on certain tasks once belonging to attorneys.

“You don’t need three years of education to learn how to fill out immigration forms or no-fault divorce forms,” Tamanaha said.

“I wouldn’t say we have too many lawyers or graduates, but there’s a mismatch,” said James Leipold, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement. He added that many students graduate from law school with up to $200,000 in debt but can find only jobs in the $60,000-a-year range.

The need for legal services remains high for the poor and middle class, who typically can’t afford attorneys from major firms, Leipold said.